The present invention relates to a method of editing a document, particularly a method of editing a webpage.
Methods of editing an electronic document, such as a webpage, are known. For a webpage, one known editing method involves editing of code which is used to render a webpage. The code may include mark-up language code, such as Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML). Once the code has been edited, the webpage rendered by the edited code is previewed. Editing requires careful attention to edit the code correctly. To preview the edited webpage, it may be necessary to submit the edited code to a server for publishing the edited webpage; this can be time-consuming and onerous for repeated edits.
Another method of editing a webpage uses editing software with so called “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) functionality. DREAMWEAVER® software and MICROSOFT® FRONTPAGE® software are examples of such software. WYSIWYG functionality allows an editor to edit a marked-up version of the webpage rendered by the code. Such mark-up may include markings showing the editor positioning and layout of text boxes, frames, formatting parameters, for example, to aid the editor in editing. By showing this mark-up, the editor does not see a true representation of the webpage rendered from the code. Moreover, the mark-up can interfere with the positioning of elements of the webpage, again providing an inaccurate representation of the webpage. Further, by editing the webpage rather than the code, WYSIWYG editors can generate excess and unnecessary code for rendering the webpage as edited.
Other methods of editing a webpage are known. For example, for a so called “database driven” webpage, the contents of portions of the webpage are stored separately in a database. When the webpage is published, the separate portions are combined to form the webpage. A portion can be edited, and then submitted to the server to update the webpage content. For the example of editing a section of text within a document, an editor would edit the text without viewing any other content surrounding the text; i.e. the editor cannot see the text being edited in situ. Once editing is complete, the edited text is submitted and replaces the text previously in the same specific area of the document.
In another method, an editor can select a portion of a webpage for editing, within a webpage browser application, which prompts editing mark-up to be shown for the selected portion. The mark-up may include line breaks, paragraph changes, headings and/or any other code for rendering the web page. Once the portion is edited, the portion is de-selected, thus removing the mark-up and previewing the edited portion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved document editing method.